Brooks Falls In Katmai National Park

 

Best birthday present ever!!

We flew on PenAir out of Anchorage to King Salmon, AK.

King Salmon is a tiny town with a large runway way out in the bush. Our plane is the on the right.

 

Next we boarded a small float plane for the last 20 minute flight. We landed on Naknek Lake.

 

 After a briefing on how to act around bears we went right to the falls and saw bears!! Lots and lots of bears, 15 to be exact all at the same time.

This sow had 4 babies which we hear is unusual.

Momma was an excellent fisher-bear. We stood there for an hour and she must have caught 8 fish. She would only eat the skin and head of the fish.

The juvenile bears settle for scraps leftover from the big bears.

 

We had lots of rain. I liked this bear sitting on a rock.

 

 One night we took a walk after dinner.

We came back to our cabin to find these 2 juvenile bears laying in the grass, rolling around and then they started wrestling. 

We stayed out on our porch and took pictures. If the bears got too close we'd go inside. There were lots of other people out taking pics too, all scurrying back inside when they'd get close to us.

 

 

 Here is the link to the live streaming webcam to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park.

See how close the bears got?

 

I took this short video, not my best work but it's what we saw.

Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes.

 

We booked an all day tour to the valley.

The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes is a valley within Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska which is filled with ash flow from the eruption of Novarupta on June 6–8, 1912. Following the eruption, thousands of fumaroles vented steam from the ash.

The picture above is a wall of ash that the river carved out.The ash is solid rock now. 

 Part of the day was a 3 mile hike down to the river. No bears. One guy hiked a neighboring trail and saw a lynx.

Above is the bar at Brook's Lodge. A favorite of ours.

 

In the same room as the bar is this fire pit.

The lodge was very comfortable.

 

Above is the plane we took away from Katmai to Kulik Fish Camp.

 

Then we hopped on this plane and flew an hour to Anchorage past the most beautiful snow covered mountains and volcanoes.

 

This is a gravel runway. Exciting stuff people.

 

 

Mt Iliamna.